Member Reviews

After a standalone and the Poirot novels it's nice to see Hannah going back to one of her 'impossible' mysteries though, sadly, she doesn't bring back her Culver Valley cops. She certainly hasn't lost her touch for wildly convoluted plots and actually delivers a denoument that is as twisted and cruel as we have hoped.

That said, Beth can be an irritating narrator with her repetitive inner dialogue (yes, we're keeping up with the story, thanks!), her endless domestic minutiae (ok, fine to tell us she's using a lavender face mask in the bath to indicate she needs to calm her anxiety... but I really don't care that it comes in powder form and has to be mixed with water to form a paste - argh, stop!)

There are some credibility issues, especially around Zan turning detective with her mother when she should be revising for her GCSEs, but Hannah pulls it all together by the end. I'd have preferred a bit more drip-feed of discoveries to tighten the whole thing up and making it less of a rush to the finish, but Hannah has delivered another labyrinthine page-turner.

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Aah when you think nothing really happens in an english village...Sophie hannah proves otherwise. In a little Cambridgeshire village, a mother takes her boy to the football. Passes a friends house who she hasn't seen for years and has a nosy. Turns out the children are still the same age as they were all those years ago. How? And so starts a very strange but unique novel by the clever twisty hands of Sophie hannah.

Aargh it's actually hard to write much more without giving it away. Ok so you have to suspend your disbelief at times but that's ok, I was fine with that. It's a creepy set up and it goes to show what extremes people will go to in order to have or at least pretend they have the perfect life.

Books about children and creepy children that haven't grown up for some reason always fascinate me and this was a good thriller to explore some very interesting themes!

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Such an original premise, the story hooked me before the end of the first chapter. I particularly liked the dynamics of Beths family, as they all grappled with the mystery of Thomas and Emily. Zannah was a joy to read. There were plenty of surprises as Sophie brought us on Beths journey of discovery. A true page turner. Chilling and creepy, a double act I always enjoy!

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